The George Museum

George sprang forth from my mind for the first time when I was twelve years old (for those of you keeping score at home, this was sometime around 1994 or 1995). He wasn’t quite fully formed then–he did not have ears and he was very rough around the edges. There was no Amanda, there was no Greg, no Rob, no Colleen, there was…well, there was George, a guy you’ve never met named Bill, and there were George’s parents. Oh, and there was his grandfather. And I think a guy named Sam, too.

I made a handful of thoroughly terrible comic strips when I was in grade school, and you’re lucky I haven’t been able to find them, or they would be featured right here where this sentence is. I can vaguely recall one strip where George made fun of his grandfather’s age, one where he either harassed–or was harassed by–a fast-food worker, and one where he and his friends went to the amusement park. This was heady stuff.

Back in February 1999, I was struck by a strange, powerful urge to create a ton of George comics. I was 16 and a junior in high school…Dave had been invented by now; also, George sported a manly pair of ears. There was still no Amanda, no Colleen…no females at all except for George’s grandmother. You see, until about six days ago, I felt like I was absolutely terrible at drawing women, so I just…I didn’t draw them. It turns out I was absolutely terrible at drawing men, too, but if I didn’t draw men, I was down to drawing…I dunno, trans-sexuals? So men it was.

Within roughly two and a half months, I was spent. I had created about 70 comics, some of which had been featured in the high school newspaper and the “teen” page of the local newspaper, and had an entire website that nobody ever visited dedicated to them. When the newspaper’s “teen” page folded (no pun intended!), I decided to call it a day and retire George for the time being. In 2001 I created about ten more (most of which are also below), but promptly got tired of doing it, and again announced my retirement from the comics business. Until I opened this website in 2005. I was a lot like Michael Jordan, or KISS.

What you’ll find here is a lot of those old comics; probably more than half of them. I want to stress the fact that I do not think these comics are great works of art, or even good works of art. Or even works of art at all, really. They are here purely for your enjoyment, and for historical chronicling when the Martians finally land and demand to know what we’ve been up to. Without further ado…